my very original book blog *woot*

I picked up this book for $8 at a sale, having seen good reviews and high scores on some readers choice awards... but my expectations were still reasonably low. For me, public opinion is a bit hit and miss. And I must say, the first few chapters didn't grab me. The writing was unpolished and the concepts behind the story just seemed thrown together, the characters bland... and the names infuriating! There was one moment where the Dauntless transfers were lead into a room with 10 beds, and there were 9 of them and they were told they had been expecting more to make it through, but there were only 13 total initiate. You wouldn't think being off by 1 would matter. Bugged the hell out of me. It should have been a room with 15 beds and there were eighteen or twenty potential transfers. Should have been picked up in editing. I also have to wonder where the rest of the world is as Chicago is a relatively small city in comparison to the globe... but that may be addressed in a future book.
Halfway through these things didn't seem to matter any more. The fast-paced story explored some really interesting ideas about the nature of human beings and their propensity for evil. I will definitely be looking forward to reading the next installment.
I like that the main character isn't particularly attractive, but I suspect that if this was ever made into a movie some stunning young girl would be chased to play Tris.


****SPOILER ALERT******

I thought that in particular the way that each of the faction's characteristics each have their own pitfalls.
I thought the point made about people always find their way back to evil very interesting. I've had conversations with friends that think that evil comes from cities and greed and if they could start their own commune or live way out in the country they'd be able to avoid evil. This book seems to fight against that idea, and I agree with it.
I also find it interesting that evil seems to want to control.
I also wonder weather the 'Fear God Alone' written on Tobias' wall will be touched on further in the next book, and weather Tris will look deeper into what she believes about God.


Overall, I think that there were a lot of things about this book that could have been a lot better. But it's mainly because the story is so good that it has so much potential. I hope that the next one is a little thicker, a little better thought out, and just as wonderfully fast-paced and thought-provoking. Such an enjoyable read!